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Arizona State Sun Devils Men's Ice Hockey
The Arizona State Sun Devils ice hockey team is the second of only two NCAA Division I ice hockey programs located in the southern half of the United States (the other being Alabama–Huntsville). ASU announced plans to transition their ACHA men's hockey program to an NCAA varsity program on November 18, 2014. The Sun Devils will continue play in the ACHA in 2014–15, play a hybrid schedule in 2015–16 with a mix of NCAA and ACHA competition, play as a Division I independent in 2016–17 and (hopefully) join a conference in 2017–18. The school announced on April 29, 2016 that it had applied to join the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. The school was hoping to join the conference for the 2018-19 season along with the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks who put in an application to join the confernce as well from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Both appications were denied by the NCHC. The team had been in talks with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association to join that conference for much of the first half of 2017. Talks broke down late in June of 2017 over the subsidy that ASU would pay out to visiting teams similar to what the two Alaska based schools do in the WCHA. The school stated that it would invest the money in the program and scheduling games against opponents as an independent. The school believes it is doing a good job scheduling games against other Division I schools. Several D-I conferences have an odd number of teams and this makes it easier for ASU to find teams that would have open dates to be able to schedule games. The school has also been dealing with the fallout from the sale of the NHL's Arizona Coyotes which spelled an end to a project with that team on a new arena. The school is now working at building a new arena on campus with final plans possible within a year. The team would earn its first NCAA tournament bid during the 2018-19 season where they lost to the Quinnipiac Bobcats 2-1 in the Midwest Regional semifinals. History Hockey began as a sport at Arizona State in the early 80’s with ASU students gathering at Tower Ice Plaza in Central Phoenix to play pick up hockey amongst each other. As collegiate club hockey evolved throughout the country, so did hockey at Arizona State. By the late 80’s ASU was fielding a full-fledged Ice Hockey Team competing in Division II of the ACHA. In 1993, General Manager Mike Hoffarth led the program to achieving ACHA Division I status propelling the Sun Devil Hockey Program into the national spotlight by qualifying for the ACHA Division I National Tournament just two years later in the 1995-96 season. Then Head Coach, Gene Hammett would lead the program to three straight National Tournament appearances from 1995-1998. ASU has qualified for 10 ACHA Division I National Tournaments since competing at the Division I level in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, and developed 12 ACHA Division I All-Americans. In the 2013-2014 season the team won its first National Championship. In the 2015-2016 NCAA hockey season ASU played their first split schedule between ACHA Division 1 and NCAA Division 1 teams, marking their first transition year to become a full-time NCAA Division 1 hockey team. Player Hall of Fame Inductees Steve Hammett, Forward 1994-1998: Inducted 2009 Greg Powers, Goaltender 1995-1999: Inducted 2009 Adam Blossey, Defense 2001-2005: Inducted 2009 Tony Bonacorso, Defense 2004-2008, Inducted 2010 Ian Smith, Forward 1999-2003, Inducted 2010 Executive Hall of Fame Inductees Gene Hammett, Head Coach 1992-2000: Inducted 2008 Mike Hoffarth, General Manager 1988-1999: Inducted 2008 Don Mullet, Donor: Inducted 2008 John Wold, Head Coach, General Manager, Oversight Committee 2001–Present: Inducted 2009 Wayne Reid, Assistant Coach, Director of Hockey Ops, Oversight Committee 1992–Present: Inducted 2009 National Tournament Appearances 1995-96, 1996–97, 1997-98*, 2000-01*, 2003-2004, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–15 (Final Four appearances ) 2013, 2014, 2015 ACHA Division I All-Americans Steve Hammett, Forward: 1997-98 Greg Powers, Goaltender: 1996-97,1997–98,1998–99 Ian Smith, Forward: 2000-01,2001-02 (Team USA, World University Games 2002) Nils Satterstom, Forward: 2000-01 Adam Blossey, Defense: 2003-04, 2004-05 (Team USA, World University Games 2005) Tony Bonacorso, Defense: 2006-07, 2007-08 (Team USA, World University Games 2008) Joe Schweiger, Forward: 2008-2009 (Eastern Michigan), 2009–10, 2010–11 Mark Schacker, Goaltender: 2010-11, 2011–12 Kale Dolinski, Forward: 2012-13 Colin Hekle, Forward: 2012-13 Ryan Clark, Defense: 2012-13 Joe D’Elia, Goaltender: 2012-13 http://www.zonethemes.com/sundevilhockey.com/DI/?page_id=36 Record Year by Year Arena Past and Present For their first season, the Sun Devils will continue to call Oceanside Ice Arena home but they'll play multiple games in Glendale's Gila River Arena, home of the NHL's Arizona Coyotes. Oceanside currently seats only 500 but will undergo hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations to expand the capacity for the coming season as well as giving the facility a facelift in ASU colors. Future arena plans The possiblility of the Arizona Coyotes working with the university to build a new facility in the city of Tempe had also been mentioned as the Coytotes are presently on a two year lease with the Gila River Arena that would expire at the end of the 2016-17 season. The earliest it is believed that a new arena could be completed woud be for the 2018-19 season. It has been reported that the NHL team would be closer to more of its fanbase by relocating to Tempe as opposed to staying in Glendale. Both ASU and the Coyotes have been open about working towards making this rink a reality. The pair have also stated that they would hope to host a future Frozen Four at the new facility. In early February of 2017, the school backed out of the agreement with the Coyotes organization. The school announced plans to construct a new arena that would host ice hockey, gymnastics and wrestling. The new arena will be adjacent to the Wells Fargo Arena on campus and seat 5,000. The addition of a arena was hopefully the final step into being accepted into a major conference. The arena is planned on being ready for November of 2020.https://arenadigest.com/2018/06/12/new-asu-multi-purpose-arena-slated-2020-completion/ The school was hoping that the new facility and the excitement brought to the school will catch on with other PAC-12 schools. Cal-Berkeley, Colorado, Stanford UCLA, and USC are located near existing NHL teams and Washington is located in the same town as a Western Hockey League team. Utah is located in an area that has hosted minor league hockey in the AHL and ECHL. That would make 7 schools that are in areas that are familiar with the sport at a more competitive level, and give the conference the more than seven teams required for an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I tournament to its champion. The conference could also add affiliate members for ice hockey as they do in wrestling and men's soccer as there is presently no conference organized specifically for teams west of Colorado and the only other D-I programs in the region are located in the state of Alaska (Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves and Alaska Nanooks based in Fairbanks) both of which play in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The AHL, ECHL, and WHL have also been based in many of the states in the area and some schools elevating their programs from the club level (and the American Collegiate Hockey Association) would also be a possibility for other sources of teams to possibly form another conference separate from the PAC-12 Coaches Head coach As the Sun Devils enter their first season of NCAA competition, Greg Powers will enter his sixth season as the team's head coach. Powers put together a 164-27-9 record during his five years as the head man behind the Devils' bench in the ACHA including a dominating 39-1-0 record against rival Arizona.House of Sparky - ASU Hockey: Coach Greg Powers' top-5 wins and losses Prior to taking over as the head coach, Powers spent two seasons as an assistant coach for ASU. Powers is also a former member of the team having played four seasons as a goaltender for the Devils from 1995-96 to 1998-99, earning All-American nods as a sophomore, junior, and senior. He was inducted into the club's Hall of Fame in 2009. Assistants and staff * Alex Hicks - Assistant Coach * Adam Blossey - Director of Hockey Operations * Mike Field, Associate Head Coach (former assistant Division I and United States Hockey League) References External links * Category:NCAA Division I teams Category:Established in 2014